Archivi tag: TFF – 24 novembre 2014

English version, Film, Film (English), TFF 33 - 2015, Torino Film Festival

Akira by Katsuhiro Ôtomo

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Article by: Matteo Merlano

Translation by: Kim Turconi

Neo Tokyo, 2019. After the third World War, Japan is in crisis. Economy in ruin in addition to corrupted and ineffective politics cannot find a way to start up again a Nation where crime and violence rule the roost. The only thing which seems to be of a certain relevance to the government is the Akira Project, sort of super secret project intended to control an enormous power, which has caused sects of obsessed people to flourish all around the city, preaching the arrival of a divinity called Akira. In this chaos, gangs of bikers speed across the city on modified beasts. Among them there are Kaneda and Tetsuo. An unexpected accident during one of the many raids, will change their lives and those of the entire nation forever.

Undisputed masterpiece of Japanese animation, the movie of Katsuito Otomo is not just a cinematographic opera, but a whole experience, leaving the audience breathless. Produced in 1988 (in Italy came out only in 1992) it was the most expensive anime in History (with a budget of one billion yens) and brought to the creation of a specific production house to realize it, the Akira Committee, with Otomo himself as the chairman, who employed for years more than one thousand animators. All the fears and the contradictions of that decade are contained in this dystopia which draws fully from western cult movies. An elaborate, chaotic and colossal Neo Tokyo is the spitting image of the rainy Los Angeles from Blade Runner (the time of setting is, for this reason, not randomly chosen) ruled by lawless riders (Mad Max) who go all around the city on futuristic bikes (Kaneda’s motorcycle design is identical to the lightcycles from Tron). The aesthetic magnificence is something which leaves everyone amazed and the masterly sound work, overseen by composer Shoji Yamashiro, was an epochal evolution in the animation field.

The concept of Evolution itself is the base of Akira. What is this mysterious energy, so devastating that it needs to be hidden in the bowels of the earth? Who controls it? Where it comes from? Who owns it and how can it be used? The spiritual aspect of the film lies in this ambivalence of the concept of Evolution – especially technological evolution – which often leads to a regression when technology goes too far.
Is it creative or destructive? Otomo is certainly a son of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That “sun” – which kills tens of thousands people in a few seconds – has affected his worldview. Evolution is a powerful force, but it can cause pain if mishandled. Akira embodies this philosophy and make it to burst with an explosion of visual effects and visionary experiences that leave an impression on one’s mind. The future portrayed by Otomo is crazy, chaotic and illuminated only by neon signs and skyscrapers lights. It is a future in which people run at full speed without any purpose, or they run for the wrong reasons.

The title of this review is taken from the famous Blade Runner monologue of Roy Batty/Rutger Hauer. Our choice has not been accidental, because the Future is already here – and perhaps already experienced. Otomo, just like Scott, “has seen things”. And we have seen them with him.

English version, Film

BRIEF INDUCEMENT TO SUICIDE

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Article by: Alessandro Arpa

Translation by: Ilaria Rana

 Can you imagine a Manet painted by prisoners? This is “Anuncian Sismos”, the first film by Rocio Caliri and Melina Marcow, two young Argentinean directors. This film, produced by Hulot Cine, draws inspiration from a real story. A small town located in the north of Argentina has been affected by several juvenile suicides, and the town decides to adopt a solution to solve this problem.

The film doesn’t explain why these suicides happen, but it stresses the consequences of these events on a group of youngsters. The final result is a 68-minute film without a specific aim. Its fragmentary narration is interrupted by inserts of petty philosophy. Although interesting, the film seems to be unclear and full of random elements. Furthermore, this situation doesn’t disconcert the main character, Mariano, who has a girlfriend with whom he spends some romantic and pathetic moments and he also has fun with his school friends.

It reminds us of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s cinema, but it hasn’t its same poetic charge. This time the Turin Film Festival has chosen a nerve-racking film. “Anuncian Sismos” is not a film for an old people’s home, as someone would risk to drop dead.

English version, Film

“TÔI QUÊN RÔI – I FORGOT!” and “LA HUELLA EN LA NIEBLA”: let’s let young international director have their chance

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Article by: Alisa Marghella

Translation by: Giulia Magazzù

 

After Pude ver a puma, Eduardo Williams comes back to the TFF with another short film, Tôi quên rôi – I forgot!, which preceded the screening of The huella en la niebla.

With Tôi quên rôi – I forgot!, the young Argentine director proposes a longer film (maybe too long, since it had to precede the next film). It is a twenty-six minute movie that  discontinuously portraits the anonymous lives of some guys who spend their days between work, hanging out and parkour. He portraits a fragmented generation, ready to jump from one roof to another, who lives in a suspended reality.

In the director’s words, «This film came to me as an opportunity to locate myself in the hypothetical place that I prefer when I direct or watch a movie, or far from any certainty. I always try to get lost in these experiences, in order to generate a vacuum that gives me the opportunity to exceed my limits». The picture that emerges is that of an unnerved and unnerving everyday life, exasperated by the use of hand-held cameras. The plot is too incomplete and the photography annoying, except for the last shot that clarifies to the viewer the sense of the fragmentary nature of the scenes.

La huella en la niebla is certainly a more pleasant movie. Directed by another Argentine director, Emiliano Grieco, it tells the story of Elias, a wounded man who returns to his island in order to rebuild his life. The wound, however, does not heal, and despite his efforts the fog ends up swallowing him.

Grieco does not employ a real actor, but a fisherman. He uses no dialogues at all, but water looks like the real star of the film. Considered as the conclusion of the documentary The Son of the River, the first work of the young director, this film lies somewhere between the great stories of Dickens and Conrad and documentary, making a good use of photography. The contrast between in focus and out of focus images serves as a narrative liaison, allowing the director to take advantage of the suggestions offered by the landscape to describe the emotions of a man trying (to no avail) to find traces of the past through the river. Overall, though, the narrative results are extremely “confusing” and the goal of placing the character in an interior limbo, unfortunately, leaves the viewer in that limbo too.

English version, Film

BETTER BUTCHER THAN CALF

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Article by: Alessandro Arpa

Translation by: Greta Moroni

 Mange tes morts is the worst insult one can ever say to a gipsy, and it is also the title of the new work by Jean-Charles Hue. This director took part in the 2009 Torino Film Festival with Carne Viva, a portrait of Tijuana reality.

This full-length film by Hue is a story of formation that in the end becomes a road movie with existentialism features. At the beginning, the film is a documentary set in the Jenisch gipsy community. The story, which may seem too simple, consists in a journey among the “gadjo” (not gipsy people) to steal a load of copper.

The French director shot a film based on the Hamletic doubt spread among Jenisch people: the choice between baptism and the consequent submission to the atavistic Christian morals or the choice to take up a career as a master thief.

The main character Jason Dorkel – a 21st century Hamlet in Nikes – chooses the first option. But Fred, Jason’s stepbrother, compromises the calm of the community. After fifteen years of jail he comes back into the Jenisch community without changing his behaviour: he is still a criminal.

Zvyagintsev was right: the return is the most ferocious butchery of the conscience. Fred is like evil that sodomises the weakest people and leads Jason to his ruin. Until then, he was depicted as a lamb doomed to hellfire.

From now on, the film becomes less united than the first part. There are a number of surreal scenes, like the one in which Fred bravely challenges police officers that seem bored psychologists ready to listen to their patients’ troubles. Actors pretend a solemnity that does not pertain to them and often improvise in an unexpected way. Mange tes morts is a nice film but it is also defective, it is interesting but also far from being a masterpiece.

Film, TFF 32 - 2014, Torino Film Festival

“Il viaggio di Marco Cavallo” di Erika Rossi e Giuseppe Tedeschi

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“Se un diabetico commette un reato e viene arrestato, durante la sua permanenza in carcere riceve cure adeguate per la sua malattia. lo stesso non si può dire per coloro che sono malati di mente”: Peppe Dell’Acqua – psichiatra e attivista per la riforma del trattamento dei criminali malati di mente – riassume con una battuta la situazione in Italia per quanto riguarda l’adeguamento della sentenza della Corte Costituzionale che nel 2003 ha dichiarato illegittimi gli OPG, gli Ospedali Psichiatrici Giudiziari. È proprio lui, che ha dedicato gran parte della sua vita alla sensibilizzazione sulla materia, il fantino del cavallo Marco nel film di Erika Rossi e Giuseppe Tedeschi.

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English version, Film

PRIMA DI ANDAR VIA: A moving farewell among the living

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Article by: Karima Vinti

Translation by: Renato Panzera

How would you react if one of your family members, or a friend, told you you that “tomorrow they are not going to be alive”? “Prima di andar via” could be the answer.

Directed by Michele Placido, this adaptation of the theatre show directed by Francesco Frangipane and written by Filippo Gili is about a family’s reaction to the son confessing his suicidal intentions. What causes this insane decision is that he cannot live without his wife, who died three months before. In a first moment they don’t understand whether Francesco (Filippo Gili) is telling the truth or he’s just talking nonsense. But Francesco is convinced of his decision and doesn’t want to go back. For him, nothing is worth it anymore, and he can’t picture his future with another woman because no one could ever be as great as Giovanna. The hug scene with his mother is touching, a hug that wants to last forever, full of love and pain.

The film was entirely shot in a small theatre. Lights and scenic design tend to give a sad, melancholic and furious air. The actors are not famous in the Italian cinematographic circle — with the exception of Giorgio Colangeli — but it’s worth writing their names: Filippo Gili, Michaela Martini, Aurora Peres, Vanessa Scalera, and Francesca Alunno. The actors succeeded in representing something that can really touch your soul. A fantastic interpretation from everyone, with no exceptions.

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Michele Placido at the “Cinema Massimo” after the screening of “Prima di andar via”.

After the first view at the “Cinema “Massimo” on November 24th, Michele Placido, some of the actors and Francesco Frangipane talked about their work with an excited public which warmly greeted the film with a long final applause. Michele Placido stated that it had been a beautiful experience and that he had decided to make it a film right after he saw the theatre show.

Director Francesco Frangipane stated: “The theatre show has hardly been around. The only achievement was the possibility of playing the show at the “Elfo Puccini” theatre in Milan”. Next, the director reflected upon the quality of performances in Italy, maintaining that the actors in this movie have nothing to envy to the so called “famous actors”, even though more well prepared figures are needed in our cinema. “If Italian directors went a bit more often to the theatre, perhaps the Italian cinema would be more lively”. Finally all of the actors thanked Michele Placido. According to them, it is because of Michele’s generosity that this movie made it to the big screen.

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Michele Placido with some cast members of  “Prima di andar via”.
English version, Film

THE MEND: A SHARP COMEDY, READY TO TURN INTO TRAGEDY

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Article by: Karima Vinti

Translation by: Ilaria Codeluppi

 Matt (Josh Lucas) is a saddened man, without any goals in his life; after a fight with his partner Andrea (Lucy Owen), he finds himself wandering around his city without a destination. In the meantime, Alan (Stephan Plunkett) and his girlfriend Farrah (Mickey Sumner) are discussing after an unlucky sexual intercourse, while preparing a party in their tiny apartment. At the party, Farrah spots Matt sitting in the living room.

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English version, Film

WALKING WITH RED RHINO, A PRAISE OF EXERIMENTAL CINEMA

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Article by: Alessandro Arpa

Translation by: Ilaria Rana

“Filmmakers must be merciless, or they are for the catering”

Alberto Signetto was definitely merciless. He loved to consider himself as a rhino because he was a “treacherous, stubborn, fat, bulky and hardly tameable animal” and he represented the fight against conformism. “Walking with red rhino”, the last film by Marilena Moretti, pays homage to one of the most underestimated Italian personalities of the 20th century.

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English version, Film

THE GUEST – THE 80’s ARE BACK WITH A BANG

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Article by: Paolo Nosenzo

Translation by: Ilaria Codeluppi

 The Petersons are a perfectly normal family, still grieving for the death of their elder son, Caleb, fallen in the Middle East. One day, a boy named David Collins knocks on their door, saying that he has served in the army with Caleb, and that he had promised him to take care of his beloved ones. At the beginning, they are a bit suspicious, but David soon gains the respect and affection of the whole family, including Caleb’s siblings, Anna and Luke. After a few violent episodes happen in the small community, Anna starts to suspect that David is hiding something, and that he’s not really who he says he is.

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